During manufacturing, large sections of an aircraft are pre-fabricated and then integrated together to create a complete vehicle. For example, a fuselage panel is attached to a wing box assembly during aircraft manufacturing. The fuselage panel is a section of the aircraft's main body. The wing box assembly is the main load carrying component of an aircraft wing.
Normal fuselage-to-wing box attachments fulfill several requirements including providing a pressure boundary and ensuring compatible deflections between the assemblies in all directions. To attach the fuselage panel to the wing box assembly, a series of stub beams are often connected between these two aircraft sections. This operation is time consuming because the fasteners used to attach the stub beams to the wing box assembly are numerous and difficult to drill.
Another problem arises when there are titanium or other hard metal elements in the attaching joint. A drill is used to create fastener holes through the stub beams and the wing box assembly. These fastener holes traditionally penetrate the wing box assembly. When there are hard metal elements in the joint, a specialized drill is required to drill the harder metal and possibly to mitigate burrs generated during drilling. Unfortunately, the large size of the specialized drill needed with hard metals interferes with the stub beam and the surrounding structures making it nearly impossible to attach the fuselage panel to the wing box assembly. Traditionally, these complex operations are performed in the later stages of the aircraft manufacturing.
It is common that a portion of the wing box assembly is also a fuel containing vessel. In the case that the fasteners penetrate this wing box assembly fuel boundary, many additional steps are required to clean the drilling contaminants from the fuel cell, seal the fuel boundary, and test the sealing.
Thus, a need exists to attach the fuselage panel to the wing box assembly in a manner that simplifies the manufacturing process.